Breaking news: Robertson beaten in Thailand

The Bexhill cueman went down 4-2 to Michael Holt in a first round tie at the Players Championship Grand Final which featured a half-century break in every frame.

World number 25 Holt got off to a flying start by rattling through the opening frame in one visit with a break of 99. He began frame two with a run of 50 en route to a 2-0 lead and a 72 in the next made it 3-0.

Robertson, ranked 44, had scored just 22 points in the first three frames, but Holt didn’t pot a ball in the next two as Robertson knocked in breaks of 89 and 61 to cut his deficit to 3-2.

Any hopes of a remarkable turnaround, however, were ended as Holt sealed victory in frame six thanks largely to a run of 52. His reward is a second round tie against Stephen Maguire or John Higgins.

The Players Championship Grand Final is a world ranking event contested by the top 24 players from the Kreativ Dental European Tour Order of Merit, plus the top eight from the Asian Tour Order of Merit.

Robertson, 28, finished 15th on the European Tour Order of Merit and eighth on the Asian Tour Order of Merit thanks in no small part to reaching the semi-finals of European Tour event six and Asian Tour event two.

St Leonards-based Mark Davis, meanwhile, will be in action tomorrow against Ricky Walden. The world number 18 has reached the quarter-finals of the Indian Open and 888.com World Grand Prix in the last fortnight.